I took the Crown Vic in for a Virginia safety inspection. It failed for 4 things:
1)Pitman arm has play. The play is very small, probably most inspectors would have overlooked it.
2)Upper ball-joint has play on the left side.
3)Upper control arm bushings are worn on the right side.
4)Axle seal is leaking onto the parking brake shoes.
The interesting part is that the shop that did the safety inspection quoted me $1300 to fix these things. I declined.
That must be NAPA prices marked up 20% and the Alldata book time multiplied times 2 with a $100/hour labor rate.
I ordered two new upper control arms (which include ball joints) for $104 each, a pitman arm for $50, and parking brake shoes for $10 from RockAuto. Shipped and with the 5% discount code, this was only about $5 more than NAPA wanted for just ONE control arm(about $250!). The parts I ordered from RockAuto are MOOG parts, except for the parking brake shoes which are made by Centric.
I think the inspector nit-picked this car. Honestly, I could probably scrape the rejection sticker off the windshield and take it elsewhere and it'll pass.
It'll be interesting to see how much difference replacing the pitman arm and the control arms will make. Everyone who has driven the car has told me they think the steering and suspension feel fine.
1)Pitman arm has play. The play is very small, probably most inspectors would have overlooked it.
2)Upper ball-joint has play on the left side.
3)Upper control arm bushings are worn on the right side.
4)Axle seal is leaking onto the parking brake shoes.
The interesting part is that the shop that did the safety inspection quoted me $1300 to fix these things. I declined.
That must be NAPA prices marked up 20% and the Alldata book time multiplied times 2 with a $100/hour labor rate.
I ordered two new upper control arms (which include ball joints) for $104 each, a pitman arm for $50, and parking brake shoes for $10 from RockAuto. Shipped and with the 5% discount code, this was only about $5 more than NAPA wanted for just ONE control arm(about $250!). The parts I ordered from RockAuto are MOOG parts, except for the parking brake shoes which are made by Centric.
I think the inspector nit-picked this car. Honestly, I could probably scrape the rejection sticker off the windshield and take it elsewhere and it'll pass.
It'll be interesting to see how much difference replacing the pitman arm and the control arms will make. Everyone who has driven the car has told me they think the steering and suspension feel fine.